Bayreuth Attractions – The Richard Wagner Society (Victoria) Go to top Most attractions in Bayreuth hail from the residence of Margravine Wilhelmine and her husband Margrave Friedrich. A diligent supporter of the arts and culture, Wilhelmine brought Italian architects and French builders to construct many of the town’s historical landmarks. As such, much of the architecture reflects heavy baroque and rococo influences. With its wide pedestrian streets, the city centre is easy to stroll, and provides a pleasant contrast to many other Bavarian towns loaded with medieval architecture. During the summer many cafes and ice cream parlours set up outdoor seating on the main shopping streets, Maximilianstrasse, Sophienstrasse, and Von-Römer-Strasse. Popular Attractions Festival Theatre Festival Theatre (Festspielhaus), Festspielhügel 1-2 (Bus 5 to Am Festspielhaus), ☎ +49 (09 21) 7 87 80. Open Daily except Mon. 10AM and 2PM (Dec-Apr) or 10AM, 11AM, 2PM, and 3PM (Sept-Oct).

Built in 1872, this opera house still ranks among the best in the world in design and acoustics. Home to the Richard Wagner Festival every summer. Just north of the main train station, take bus 5 to Am Festspielhaus. The grounds are crowded, tours seldom, and tickets rare during the annual Richard Wagner Festival in late July-August each year. Garden Museum Fantaisie Palace and Park Garden Museum Fantaisie Palace and Park (Schloss and Park Fantaisie), Bambergerstr. 3, 95488 Eckersdorf/Donndorf (Take bus 8231, 8433, 8446, or 8449 towards Donndorf to stop Fantaisie), ☎ +49 (09 21) 73 14 00 11. Open Daily except Mon. 9AM-6PM (Apr-Sept) or 10AM-4PM (Oct 1st-15th), closed Oct. 16th to Apr 1st.

The 18th century palace designed by the daughter of Margrave Friedrich and Margravine Wilhelmine, features Germany’s first garden design museum. Located 5 km west of Bayreuth, take bus 8231, 8433, 8446, or 8449 towards Donndorf to stop Fantaisie. Hermitage/Old Palace Hermitage/Old Palace (Eremitage/Altes Schloss), Eremitage 1 (Take Bus 2 or 3 to Eremitage), ☎ +49 (09 21) 7 59 69 37 (sgvbayreuth@bsv.bayern.de). Open Daily 9AM-6PM (Apr-Sept) or 10AM-4PM (Oct 1st-15th), closed Oct. 16th to Apr 1st. The old palace of Margrave Georg Wilhelm on the outskirts of town, the palace was expanded and the gardens created by Wilhelmine as a summer residence. The ornate fountains begin their waterworks on the hour from 10AM to 5PM.

Guided tours are available. The Eremitage is approximately 6 km outside Bayreuth, take bus 2 or 3 to Eremitage. Margravial Opera House Margravial Opera House (Markgräfliches Opernhaus), Opernstr. 8, ☎ +49 (09 21) 7 59 69 22 (sgvbayreuth@bsv.bayern.de). Open Daily 9AM-6PM (Apr-Sept) or 10AM-4PM (Oct-Mar). The baroque opera house, commissioned by Margravine Wilhelmine and designed by famous Giuseppe Galli Bibiena and son Carlo from Italy, was completed in 1748 and remained Germany’s largest opera house until 1871. This ornate opera house partially drew Richard Wagner’s attention to Bayreuth. New Palace New Palace (Neues Schloss), Ludwigstr. 21, ☎ +49 (09 21) 7 59 69 21 (sgvbayreuth@bsv.bayern.de). Open Daily except Mon.

9AM-6PM (Apr-Sept) or 10AM-4PM (Oct-Mar). The new residence of the Margrave Friedrich and his wife Wilhelmine after their old residence burnt down. It was designed and built by the French builder Joseph Saint-Pierre, and completed in 1754. The entrance fee includes entrance to the two museums inside: The Museum “Margravine Wilhelmine’s Bayreuth” and the museum “Bayreuth Faience – Rummel Collection,” featuring porcelain manufactured in Bayreuth in the 18th century. Rooms of interest include the Garden Rooms, Cedar Room, Old Music Room, and the Cabinet of Fragmented Mirrors (designed by Wilhelmine herself). Castle Church and Tower Castle Church and Tower (Schlosskirche and Schlossturm), Schlossberglein 5, 95444 Bayreuth, ☎ +49 (09 21) 885 88. Opens for prearranged tours. The court chapel and tower were also commissioned and built by Friedrich and Wilhelmine, completed in 1758.

The burial vault of the Friedrich and Wilhelmine is located here. The spiral staircase in the tower features a ramp to bring supplies up to the guardroom, which has a great view over the town and to the nearby Fichtelgebirge. Spitalkirche Spitalkirche (Spitalkirche). The hospital church is located at the west end of the main market street Maximilianstrasse. It is Lutheran and is managed by the town of Bayreuth as part of the Hospital Foundation. Stadtkirche Stadtkirche (Stadtkirche). The Stadtkirche is a Gothic three nave basilica dedicated to the Holy Trinity. The oldest parts of the church date back to the 12th century. In a side nave there is the crypt of the Hohenzollern Dynasty, for the margraves of Brandenburg-Bayreuth. Go to top Museums For a town of its size, Bayreuth is rich in museums; over two dozen can be found in and around the city.

Noteworthy among the many are the Richard Wagner Museum and Franz-Liszt-Museum, documenting the lives of these prominent German and Hungarian composers, the Guinness Book of World Records recognized Maisel’s Brewery and Cooper’s Museum, as well as the museums located in the New Palace: Bayreuther Faiences – The Rummel Collection, The State Galleries and Margravine Wilhelmine’s Bayreuth. Every fall the museums offer a Bayreuth Museum Night (Bayreuther Museumsnacht). On this night, a single ticket allows entry to every museum in the city from 8PM until 2AM. Archaeological Museum Archaeological Museum (Archäologisches Museum), Ludwigstr. 21 (Italian Building of the New Palace), ☎ +49 (0) 9 21 / 6 53 07. End of April to beginning of November: 10AM-3PM on Saturdays, or by appointment. Archeological finds from Upper Franconia and laid out in eight rooms, spanning the stone age through the middle ages. Most text descriptions might be only in German.

Bayreuther Faiences Bayreuther Faiences – The Rummel Collection (Sammlung Bayreuther Fayencen), In the New Palace, ☎ +49 (0) 9 21/7 59 69 21. A collection of porcelain manufactured in Bayreuth between 1716 and 1788. See New Palace above for more information. Catacombs of Bayreuth’s Aktien Brewery Catacombs of Bayreuth’s Aktien Brewery (Katakomben der Bayreuther AKTIEN-Brauerei), Kulmbacherstr. 60, ☎ +49 (0) 9 21 / 401-234 (katakomben@bayreuther-bierbrauerei.de). Tours Saturdays at 4PM, or group tours by prior arrangement. Aktien Breweries provides an interesting tour through the sandstone beer caverns that operated from the 16th through the 19th centuries. Since the caverns stay very cool throughout the year, appropriate clothing is recommended.

Fire Brigade Museum Fire Brigade Museum (Feuerwehrmuseum), An der Feuerwache 4, ☎ +49 (0) 9 21/4 82 99. Open upon prior arrangement. A collection of fire engines from different eras and regions. Franz-Liszt-Museum Franz-Liszt-Museum, Wahnfriedstr. 9, ☎ +49 (0) 9 21 / 5 16 64 88. Sep – Jun: 10AM-noon & 2PM-5PM; Jul – Aug: 10AM-5PM. The house of Franz Liszt, the famous Hungarian composer and father-in-law to Richard Wagner. Very near the Richard Wagner museum. German Freemason Museum German Freemason Museum (Deutsches Freimaurer-Museum), Im Hofgarten 1, ☎ +49 (0) 9 21 / 6 98 24 (museum.bayreuth@freimaurer.org). Tu-F 10AM-noon and 2PM-4PM; Sa 10AM-noon.

A museum run by the German Freemason’s presenting the history of the organization. German Typewriter Museum German Typewriter Museum (Deutsches Schreibmaschinenmuseum), Bernecker Str. 11, ☎ +49 (0) 9 21/2 34 45. M-F by telephone appointment. A collection of typewriters dating back to 1864. The collection in Bayreuth began in 1936, and has expanded ever since. Historical Museum Historical Museum (Historisches Museum), Kirchplatz 6, ☎ +49 (0) 9 21 / 7 64 01 11 (historischesmuseum@bayreuth.de). Tu-Su 10AM-5PM; Jul – Aug: also open Mondays. This museum chronicles the history of Bayreuth from a small Bavarian village to one of the most culturally-important small cities in Germany. The 17th century building provides a suitable setting for the historical collections.

Iwalewa House Iwalewa House (Iwalewa-Haus), Münzgasse 9, ☎ +49 (0) 9 21/55 36 81. Tu-Su 2PM-6PM. Afro-cultural center of the University of Bayreuth. Jean Paul Museum Jean Paul Museum, Wahnfriedstr. 1, ☎ +49 (0) 9 21 / 5 07 14 44 (info@wagnermuseum.de). Sep – Jun: 10AM-noon & 2PM-5PM; Jul – Aug: 10AM-5PM. A small museum dedicated to the life and works of the German poet, who lived his last years from 1804 – 1825 in Bayreuth. The museum is in the former residence of Richard Wagner’s daughter Eva. Little Poster Museum Little Poster Museum (Kleines Plakatmuseum), Friedrich-Puchta-Str. 12, ☎ +49 (0) 9 21/8 24 58.

Tu & Th 4PM-6PM and by appointment. A collection of contemporary poster art primarily concerning popular culture advertisements (such as movie and performance advertisements). Maisel’s Brewery and Coopers Museum Maisel’s Brewery and Coopers Museum (Maisel’s Brauerei und Büttnerei Museum), Kulmbacherstr. 40, ☎ +49 (0) 9 21 / 40 12 34 (brauereimuseum@maisel.com). Daily 2PM. The Guinness Book Of World Records’ Most Comprehensive Beer Museum occupies the first brewery building of Maisel’s Brewery (taken out of commission in the 1970s). The 90 minute tour covers the entirety of the brewing process, and of course finishes with a glass of Maisel’s Weissbier. Group tours for 12 or more people can be booked by calling in advance. Museum of Agricultural Tools and Equipment Museum of Agricultural Tools and Equipment (Museum für bäuerliche Arbeitsgeräte), Adolf-Wächter-Str. 17, ☎ +49 (0) 9 21/5 75 15.

May – Oct: M-F 9:30AM-noon, Su 2PM-5PM; Rest of the year and for groups, irregularly or by appointment. A collection of agricultural equipment highlighting the tools and techniques of farmers from Upper Franconia. What started as a private collection by Günter Schmidt was taken over by the city and offered as a public museum starting in 1972. Housed in a historic farmhouse. Museum of Art Museum of Art (Kunstmuseum), Maximilianstr. 33, ☎ +49 (0) 9 21/7 64 53 10. Tu-Su 10AM-5PM; Jul – Aug: also open Mondays. Housed in the former city hall’s Renaissance-style building, the Museum of Art offers alternating collections of sculpture and painting. Museum of Natural History Museum of Natural History (Urwelt-Museum Oberfranken), Kanzleistr. 1, ☎ +49 (0) 9 21 / 51 12 11 (verwaltung@urwelt-museum.de).

Tu-Su 10AM-5PM; Jul – Aug: also open Mondays. The museum in the main pedestrian shopping area highlights the life, geology and minerology during the last 500 million years of Upper Franconia. In front of the museum looms a giant dinosaur statue, along the main shopping street. Museum of Wilhelmine’s Bayreuth Museum of Wilhelmine’s Bayreuth, Museum Das Bayreuth der Wilhelmine. Museum highlighting the life and culture of Bayreuth during the time of Margravine Wilhelmine. The collections are part of the New Palace, see above for more information. Natural Science Museum Natural Science Museum (Naturkundemuseum), Karolinenreuther Str. 58, ☎ +49 (0) 9 21/75 94 20. Nov – Feb: Tu-F 9AM-4PM, Su 10AM-3PM; Mar – Oct: Tu-F 9AM-4PM, Sa-Su 1PM-5PM. This small museum in a farmhouse just outside the city describes the flora and fauna of Bayreuth and Upper Franconia.

The museum is especially designed to engage and educate children. Richard Wagner Museum Richard Wagner Museum, Richard-Wagner-Str. 48, ☎ +49 (0) 9 21/7 57 28 16. Apr – Oct: 9AM-5PM M,W,F,Sa,Su, & 9AM-8PM Tu,Th; Nov – Mar: 10AM-5PM daily. The composer’s old residence (Wahnfried House, Haus Wahnfried) has been converted to a museum chronicling his life and works. The composer, his wife, and their dog are buried in the garden. The museum may be of lesser interest to non-German speakers, as it has few English translations. State Gallery in the New Palace State Gallery in the New Palace (Staatsgalerie im Neuen Schloss), Ludwigstraße 21 (In the New Palace), ☎ +49 (0) 9 21 / 7 59 69-0. Apr – Sept: 9AM-6PM daily; Oct – Mar: 10AM-4PM (closed M).

Occupying three rooms of the palace, this exhibition features 80 works of art from the late baroque. Court Garden Court Garden (Hofgarten), (Behind the Neues Schloss). Open 24 hours a day year round. The court garden of the Neues Schloss, this park provides a welcome bit of green in the middle of the city. On sunny days, you can find many residents here relaxing or exercising with a little sport. Hermitage Hermitage (Eremitage), Eremitage 1 (Take Bus 2 or 3 to Eremitage), ☎ +49 (09 21) 7 59 69 37 (sgvbayreuth@bsv.bayern.de). Open Daily 9AM-6PM (Apr-Sept) or 10AM-4PM (Oct 1st-15th), closed Oct. 16th to Apr 1st. The old palace of Margrave Georg Wilhelm on the outskirts of town, the palace was expanded and the gardens created by Wilhelmine as a summer residence.

The ornate fountains begin their waterworks on the hour from 10AM to 5PM. Guided tours are available. The Eremitage is approximately 6 km outside Bayreuth, take bus 2 or 3 to Eremitage. What are some familial relationships between famous composers and performers? - Quora Quora What are some familial relationships between famous composers and performers? For example: -Arnold Schoenberg was Luigi Nono's father-in-law -Franz Liszt was Richard Wagner's father-in-law Updated 10/2 Y'all must think I can't read: the question asks for composers, I answered with conductors. My apologies. Conductor Arturo Toscanini's son-in-law was Vladimir Horowitz, the legendary pianist. Conductor Neeme Jarvi has two sons who are conductors, and a daughter, Maarika, who is a flutist. Conductor Neville Marriner's son is Andrew Marriner, principal clarinet of the London Symphony. Conductor Leonard Slatkin's parents were both musicians.

His violinist father, Felix, and cellist mother, Eleanor Aller, were founding members of the Hollywood String Quartet, and played in several of the studio orchestras (Warner Bros, 20th C Fox, etc). According to Wikipedia: "[Felix Slatkin] was Frank Sinatra 's concertmaster and conductor of choice during the Capitol years of the 1950s." This one's not a family relationship, but it's too good not to mention: Leonard Slatkin's high school music teacher was none other than Peter Schickele, aka PDQ Bach. Must have been some fun times in class! 464 Views · View Upvotes · Answer requested by Written Apr 23, 2015 The one I know the best is Robert and Clara (Wieck) Schumann. A classic romance with the rich father who didn't want the daughter to marry a penniless musician, but finally acquiesced. The penniless musician ruined his hand, in his 20's, trying flexibility exercises in a vain attempt to surpass the hotshot pianists of the day (though Clara could play anything he wrote, and was famous as a pianist).

Schumann also championed the unknown composer Johannes Brahms (who was also smitten by Clara, but she was in love with Robert). Then, at the age of 41, Schumann died, having voluntarily submitted himself to an insane asylum, being suicidal and depressed (possibly from mercury poisoning, acquired in treatments for the above). Clara was allowed to see him only a few days before his death. Brahms had remained a lifelong bachelor, but expressed his love and sorrow for Clara by helping her family a great deal during the remainder of their lives. WHY hasn't anyone made a movie of this wonderful and true story? (maybe just as well - Hollywood might fictionalize and ruin the relationships as they did with Amadeus.) So composer and pianist married; and later another composer/pianist became a type of godfather. Written Oct 2, 2014 Of the top of my head, here's just one: Composer Franz Liszt's daughter, Cosima, married Richard Wagner. Cosima Wagner Wagner composed the Siegfried Idyll as a birthday present to his second wife, Cosima, after the birth of their son Siegfried in 1869.

It was first performed on Christmas morning, 25 December 1870,[1] by a small ensemble of the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich on the stairs of their villa at Tribschen (today part of Lucerne), Switzerland. Cosima awoke to its opening melody. Conductor Hans Richter played the brief trumpet part in that private performance.[2] There are no doubt lots of others and you'll have fun discovering them! 182 Views · View Upvotes · Answer requested by Franz Liszt - Biography - IMDb Franz Liszt Jump to: Overview (4) | Mini Bio (1) | Trivia (2) Overview (4) 6' 1" (1.85 m) Mini Bio (1) Franz Liszt, the virtuoso pianist and composer, was the most famous concert superstar of the 19th century. He was born in what was then the Austrian Empire. His father was Hungarian and his mother was Austrian. At age 6 he took music lessons from his father, Adam Liszt, who worked at the Court of Count Esterhazy, the main sponsor of Liszt's education and career.

Liszt continued his music studies in Vienna under Carl Czerny and Antonio Salieri . In 1823, at the young age of 12, Liszt moved with his parents to Paris. There he enjoyed an early friendship with Frédéric Chopin , but later they became rivals. At that time young Liszt began his career of a travelling virtuoso. He was adulated all-over Europe, from Ireland to Russia. His concert performances included his own compositions, regarded by many as the most difficult piano music ever written. His elegant, worldly manners in combination with diabolic cynicism and his impressive stage presence and supernatural virtuosity gave cause for rumors, that he must have made a deal with the Devil. His "Mephisto Waltz" depicts the Devil playing a Paganini-style violin on the piano. Franz Liszt became a friend of many important cultural figures of his time. He attended the Paris premiere of the "Symphonie Fantastique" by Hector Berlioz and the two composers became good friends. Liszt shared mutual respect with Mikhail Glinka . He also admired Aleksandr Borodin and promoted his first symphony for performances in Western Europe.

Liszt was a friend of Richard Wagner , who was Liszt's son-in-law, until their differences led to cooler relationship in their later years. Liszt's influence on his fellow musicians was legendary. He made superb piano transcriptions of symphonies, operas and large orchestral works of other composers, such as Ludwig van Beethoven , Hector Berlioz , Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Richard Wagner . Operas and symphonies in Liszt's transcriptions became valuable repertoire of many pianists. Liszt lived and travelled with the married Countess Marie D'Agoult for 12 years and they had three children. In 1847, in Russia, Liszt met the beautiful and wealthy Princess Carolyne Wittgenstein, who soon left her husband for Liszt. In 1848 he became the Director of Music at the Court of Weimar. There, living with Carolyne in her mansion, he composed and revised his most important music, including the "Dream of Love", dedicated to Carolyne. The Church did not allow Liszt to marry Carolyne and also did not allow Carolyne to divorce Wittgenstein, with whom she had a daughter.

In 1861 Liszt settled in Rome where Carolyne bought a home and they tried to marry again, but the Church did not terminate Carolyne's marriage until her husband died in 1864. She then changed her mind and lived with unmarried Liszt, who was stuck in this painful situation until the end of his life. Under her influence, he became a religious man and in 1865 Pope admitted Liszt into Holy Orders and commissioned the church music. Since 1870s Liszt taught at the Budapest Conservatory and also participated with Wagner in several concert events in Bayreith. He spent his last years between Rome, Weimar, Budapest and Bayreuth, where he died in 1886. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Steve Shelokhonov Trivia (2) He eloped to Switzerland with Countess Marie d'Agoult. Their idealistic relationship eventually disintegrated in 1844. Together, Liszt and d'Agoult had three children: daughters Blandine (born 1835) and Cosima (born 1837), and son Daniel (born 1839).

Daniel died in 1859 at the tender age of 21. Liszt would write "Two Episodes from Lenau's Faust" and "Les Morts" to honour his memory. In 1862, his daughter Blandine died in childbirth. His other daughter, Cosima, later left her husband to be with composer Richard Wagner , to whom she bore daughters Isolde in 1865 and Eva in 1867 and son Siegfried in 1869 before they finally married in 1870. Classical Net - Basic Repertoire List - Wagner Richard Wagner (1813 - 1883) Richard Wagner (May 22, 1813 - February 13, 1883) was a German opera composer and key figure in the development of late Romantic music. He stretched the tonal systems of his day, using chromaticism for dramatic effect. Wagner also introduced the concept of the leitmotiv in his operatic plot development, a recurring musical theme associated with a particular person, place, or idea. Wagner was born in Leipzig during the chaotic final years of the Napoleonic wars.

For over a century his paternity has been a subject of intense debate, a matter of little importance had Wagner not been rabidly anti-Semitic and had he not suspected that his father's friend, Ludwig Geyer, was in fact his natural father and that Geyer was at least partly Jewish. Following his father's death, Richard's mother married Ludwig, thus Wagner became and remained Richard Geyer until 1828. Legitimacy apart, Wagner grew up in a loving environment at Geyer's house in Dresden, together with his mother, brother and three sisters, and Geyer ensured that he received a good education. By the time Richard was in his mid-teens he was sufficiently interested in music to take secret lessons from a Leipzig teacher, and by 1830 was ready to enter the Leipzig Thomasschule where, among other subjects, he learned to play the violin tolerably well. He joined Leipzig University in 1831, extended his music lessons to take theory from Christian Weinlig and enjoyed the usual period of undergraduate dissipation.

By then he had grown into a rather unprepossessing-looking young man, with a head too big for his short body (he was 5 ft 6 ins), a forceful jaw and high forehead. He began his career as a composer with a series of instrumental and orchestral pieces which betrayed their debt to Mozart , Haydn and Beethoven , his youthful Symphony in C receiving a Prague premiere in 1832. But with university over it was time for him to earn a living. His brother Albert, who had contacts in the theatrical world, secured him a position at the theatre in W�rzburg where Wagner gained valuable practical experience of many aspects of mounting opera productions. It also gave him direct knowledge of some of the most popular operas of the day, including Marschner's Der Vampyr and Meyerbeer's Robert le Diable. By then Wagner had already tried his hand at opera (Die Hochzeit and Die Feen), writing his own libretti, but his sister disapproved of the results and he suppressed the former work while the latter had to wait until after his death for its first performance.

He had higher hopes for his next attempt, Das Liebesverbot (The Love Ban), a work based loosely on Shakespeare's Measure for Measure and described by the composer as a "grand comic opera". After being appointed as conductor in Magdeburg in 1834, he finally mounted a performance of it there in 1836, but the production company collapsed before a second performance could be mounted. The summer of 1834 found Wagner in Lauchstädt in the throes of his first major love affair with Minna Planer, a young actress with the Magdeburg opera company. His passion for her reached obsessive levels. For a time she kept him at arms' length, but after he had pursued her from Lauchstädt to Königsberg, she finally accepted his offer of marriage. Wagner was already establishing a pattern of behavior which he was to repeat many times over, and his flight to K&ormolu;nigsberg was prompted as much by his debts in Lauchstädt as by his love for Minna. After his marriage he proceeded to run up new debts in Königsberg and within a short time Minna was sufficiently fearful of the future to escape to her family in Dresden.

Wagner and Minna reconciled, but the marriage remained troubled. After an abortive season in Riga conducting light opera, Wagner fled the city under cover of darkness to avoid his creditors and made for Paris, where he hoped for a production of his new opera, Rienzi. Through an introduction fortuitously gained from two traveling companions he and Minna met on their way to France, Wagner called on Giacomo Meyerbeer on his arrival in Paris and the composer gave Wagner what advice he could for success in Paris. Operatic success eluded him, yet he managed considerable success as a critic while he was there, publishing a string of articles in several journals. In later years this was remembered as a humiliation, and his way of repaying Meyerbeer for his kindness was to publish anonymously a grossly anti-Semitic essay, Judaism in Music , which specifically attacked Meyerbeer's operas. Wagner also blamed Meyerbeer, groundlessly, for his travails in Paris. Wagner left Paris for Germany in 1842, Meyerbeer having helped him obtain a production of Rienzi in Dresden in 1841, and a production of Der fliegende Holländer in Berlin in 1843.

Rienzi shows the influence of Meyerbeer in the way in which Wagner set and conceived his musical drama, and it is possible that, in his obsession with crediting only himself and Beethoven for all his creative developments (he similarly obscured the impact of Berlioz's music on his writing at this time), he deliberately attacked Meyerbeer and his music as the best form of defending his own unique genius to posterity. The post of Kapellmeister at the Dresden Court fell vacant soon after the successful premiere of Holländer, and Wagner was persuaded to take the position. He remained there six years, during which time he engaged in a sustained campaign to jolt the provincial Court out of its deeply conservative tastes. He continued to live well beyond his means and provoked criticism on a personal as well as a professional level. Nevertheless, during this time he completed Tannhäuser and it was premiered in Dresden in 1845 under his own baton. Indeed, many of his productions at Dresden were far-sighted and merit applause (his adherence to Gluck, for example). All this was brought to an end, however, by the 1849 revolution in Dresden.

Wagner had backed the insurgents, writing inflammatory articles and helping to organize resistance to the Prussian troops. After the collapse of the insurrection, Wagner was lucky to evade arrest and made his way to Weimar where he threw himself on the mercy of Franz Liszt , a friend since his early days in Dresden. Liszt, then engrossed in preparing Tannhäuser for its Weimar debut, arranged for Wagner's safe passage to Switzerland. Anxious to commence earning an income outside Germany, Wagner moved to Paris, but failure to obtain a production of any of his operas, a fraught affair with a friend's wife and the triumph of Meyerbeer's Le Prophete drove him back to Switzerland in a bitter frame of mind. Liszt, however, went ahead with a first production of Lohengrin in Weimar in 1850, thereby declaring his loyalty to a composer he believed to hold the key to the future of music. Over the next two years Wagner completed the librettos for the entire Ring cycle.

His Swiss exile was a great hardship for him, but he certainly employed the time profitably, writing Das Rheingold (1854), Die Walküre (1856) and two acts of Siegfried (1857). During these years his reputation continued to grow through the performance of excerpts from his operas, (he called them, graphically, "bleeding chunks") such as those heard by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert (including the Tannhäuser Overture) in London in 1855 under Wagner's own direction. His intense and sustained burst of work on The Ring was interrupted by his sudden switch to the story of Tristan und Isolde, which engaged his full attention after he and Minna moved to a cottage near Zurich provided by his friend and patron, the rich businessman Otto Wesendonck, who lived nearby. The reason for this sudden change was the onset of a passionate affair between the composer and Wesendonck's wife, Mathilde. Wagner long suppressed his feelings towards this woman, but now the close proximity led him to press his Suit, and Mathilde responded. The fast-appearing tragedy of Tristan was clearly being composed as a corollary to their doomed passion.

Minna discovered Wagner's liaison with Mathilde, and although Wagner was to finish Tristan – his opera dedicated to his doomed affair with Mathilde – as well as the beautiful Wesendonck Lieder (settings of poems by Mathilde), the affair was ended by Wesendonck removing his wife to Italy. Wagner completed Tristan before the close of 1859, producing an opera which was to prove as influential as any other written during the 19th century. There are few areas of Classical music the harmonies of Tristan did not reach in the next 50 years, and the deep neurosis of the work, embracing love and death as two sides of the same coin, admirably suited the fin de siecle sensibilities of the time. For the next few years Wagner led a calmer but peripatetic life, even advancing plans for a grand comic opera which was to become Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. By early 1862 he and Minna had agreed to a final separation and she moved back to Dresden. An 1863 concert tour in Russia brought him a financial windfall which enabled him to live extravagantly in Austria until he ran up debts which threatened his imprisonment.

In 1864 he was still rootless and looking for somewhere to settle when he was summoned to Munich by Ludwig II, the new 18-year-old King of Bavaria. His relationship with Ludwig II was remarkable in many ways, not least because the two men rarely met, preferring to communicate by letter even though Wagner was in the same city. The composer was given very generous terms over the years of Ludwig's patronage, being paid large sums of money, some of which he latterly used to save his Bayreuth project from collapse. But Wagner's conspicuous consumption of Ludwig's money, allied to a transparent contempt for the local aristocrats, precipitated a move from Munich to Lake Lucerne in 1865. By this time he had begun an affair with Hans von Bulow's wife, Cosima (nee Liszt), and his first child by her, Isolde, was born in 1865. Afraid that Ludwig would throw him out, Wagner and Cosima refused to admit to the child's illegitimacy, though Wagner's domestic situation eased somewhat with the death of his wife Minna in 1866.

In the following years Wagner balanced his demands for total artistic and financial freedom with Ludwig's demands to see results for his generous patronage. Against the composer's wishes, the first two operas of The Ring (Das Rheingold and Die Walküre) were premiered in Munich between 1869 and 1871, and Ludwig pressed Wagner continuously for Siegfried to be completed and staged there as well. But Wagner had found in the village of Bayreuth the ideal setting for the realization of his ideals of German opera for the future, and was determined to press ahead with his plans to build an opera house to his specifications. Cosima moved there in 1868 and after her divorce from von Bulow in 1869, she and Wagner were married. By 1874 Götterdämmerung had been completed. So, too, had Wagner's own house in Bayreuth, Wahnfried, into which he moved Cosima and the children. But the theatre project came close to collapse as funds ran out and new investors proved hard to find. At this point Ludwig saved the project with financial aid: his reward was the manuscripts of many of Wagner's operas.

He also came to the 1876 dress rehearsals for The Ring (the first season): it was his first meeting with Wagner in eight years. Two years later, when the entire festival organization was close to bankruptcy, Ludwig again interceded and all debts were liquidated. True to form, Wagner put the blame for the poor attendance during the first years of Bayreuth onto those groups he had spent most of his life berating, writing articles and essays excoriating the so-called elements in German life – Jews, radicals and so on – that prevented true Germans from appreciating his music. Certainly his last opera, Parsifal, is a spiritual expression of many of these debatable viewpoints, and although it is perhaps his greatest and most completely realized musical creation, there has never been general agreement on the exact nature of the Christian message at the heart of the opera. There have also been suggestions that this great spiritual work was initially inspired by his passionate and illicit love for another woman, this time Judith Gautier (daughter of the French writer Theophile Gautier), whom he had met in 1869.

It was premiered at Bayreuth in 1882, by which time Bayreuth had become an annual place of pilgrimage for many of the most radical spirits in European culture. In early 1883 Wagner went with Cosima to Venice to rest and plan for the future, but succumbed to a heart attack on 13th February. His body was transported back to Wahnfried and buried in the grounds nearby. Cosima lived until 1930, effectively shaping the posthumous reputation of her husband through her own highly selective interpretation of his legacy and life. Undeniably, his greatest achievement is the cycle of four massive operas, completed in 1876, and known as Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung) or simply "The Ring", consisting of Das Rheingold (The Rhine Gold), Siegfried, Die Walküre (The Valkyrie), and Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods) composed in order between 1869 and 1874. Recommended Recordings

Question: Which famous composer was the father-in-law of Richard Wagner?
Answer: FRANZ LISZT